1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microwave oven with a bar code scanner, and more particularly to a bar code scanner installing structure of the microwave oven with a bar code scanner.
2. Description of Related Art
A microwave oven is a cooking device for heating food by using microwaves, and uses high frequency electric waves of 2,450 MHz. A conventional microwave oven is provided with selection buttons so that a user can select a general cooking process and a cooking method corresponding to the kind of food to be cooked. However, since a large variety of foods exist, the user can only cook the food by selecting a cooking process roughly (approximately) proper for various foods instead of selecting a cooking process exactly proper for various foods.
In order to improve this problem, recently, as disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 1999-0074607, a microwave oven for reading a bar code attached to a food package, for determining food type, and for cooking the food by automatically setting the optimal cooking time according to the determined kind of food, has been developed.
The microwave oven disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 1999-0074607 includes a bar code reader (or a bar code scanner) for reading a bar code attached to the food in addition to other components of the microwave oven, such as a cooking chamber, and a high frequency oscillator. The bar code reader is fixed inside the cooking chamber, or connected with a main body of the microwave oven. In the event that the bar code reader is fixed inside the cooking chamber, since the bar code attached to the food package must face the bar code reader in order to be read, it is inconvenient to use. Moreover, when the bar code reader is connected to the main body of the microwave oven, the bar code reader may fall from the main body and be damaged.